• Home
  • News
  • Business
  • Gear
  • Reviews
  • Games
  • Science
  • Security
Reading: Windows 11’s widgets can now trigger notifications on your taskbar
Share
Ad image
Technology MagazineTechnology Magazine
Aa
  • News
  • Business
  • Gear
  • Reviews
  • Games
  • Science
  • Security
Search
  • Home
  • News
  • Business
  • Gear
  • Reviews
  • Games
  • Science
  • Security
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
Technology Magazine > News > Windows 11’s widgets can now trigger notifications on your taskbar
News

Windows 11’s widgets can now trigger notifications on your taskbar

Press room
Press room Published August 17, 2022
Last updated: 2022/08/17 at 9:48 AM
Share
SHARE

Microsoft is rolling out a taskbar notification system to its Windows 11 widgets this week. While the weather widget returned to Windows 11 earlier this year, it’s largely been a static experience that displays a sunny icon when the weather is good and an umbrella icon when it’s raining and sucks to be outside. That’s all changing this week, as Microsoft is now adding live animations to this taskbar widget.

All Windows 11 users will start to see these new widget notifications in the coming days and weeks, thanks to an update to the Windows Web Experience Pack that powers Microsoft’s widgets feature. The notifications appear as live animations on the taskbar weather widget, and include alerts for thunderstorms and even ticker alerts when stocks you’re following go up or down.

“When something important happens related to one of your other widgets, you may see an announcement from that widget on your taskbar,” explains Microsoft in a support article. “These announcements are meant to be quick and glanceable, and if you don’t interact with them, the taskbar will return to showing you the weather.”

The regular weather taskbar widget.
Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge

An alert for thunderstorms.
Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge

I’ve been seeing some of these notifications in recent days on my Windows 11 machine, and they can be rather distracting — especially if you have the taskbar centered. While the weather ones are useful to alert you to thunderstorms and other elements of nature you’d rather avoid, the alerts for stocks are far less so in my experience. You can just ignore the notifications and the taskbar widget will return to the static weather one, but the animations certainly catch your attention if you’re in the middle of a meeting or you’re busy figuring out why your VLOOKUP table isn’t working in Excel.

Microsoft doesn’t appear to offer a way to easily disable these notifications, either. I’d like to keep the weather alerts but ditch the stock animations and any other notifications so my taskbar is a little less distracting. Given we can fine tune news content inside the main widgets panel, I’m hoping that a setting to fine tune widget notifications is on the way.

Speaking of future Windows 11 updates, Microsoft is also planning to release its next major OS update on September 20th. Windows 11 22H2 will include new app folders in the Start menu, drag and drop on the taskbar, new touch gestures, and much more.

Press room August 17, 2022
Share this Article
Facebook TwitterEmail Print
What do you think?
Love0
Sad0
Happy0
Sleepy0
Angry0
Dead0
Wink0
Leave a comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You Might Also Like

News

Microsoft says it has stopped its Xbox Game Pass $1 trial offer

2 Min Read
News

Apple staff reportedly express doubts about mixed-reality headset months ahead of launch

2 Min Read
News

The Wii U and Nintendo 3DS eShops shut down tomorrow

2 Min Read
News

Elon Musk reportedly halves Twitter’s valuation in internal memo

1 Min Read
  • Review
  • Top Lists
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use

We influence 20 million users and is the number one business and technology news network on the planet.

I have read and agree to the terms & conditions

Contact US

  • Contact Us
  • DMCA
  • Editorial Policy
  • Advertise

Quick Link

  • Gear
  • Games
  • Security
  • Reviews

© 2022 Technology Magazine. All Rights Reserved.

Follow US on Socials

Removed from reading list

Undo
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?